KapCons Past...

The first KapCon in the current unbroken chain of yearly events was held in 1993 at Coastlands Mall in Paraparaumu, on the Kapiti Coast, organized by David Ward. In 1995 David moved to Wellington to attend Victoria University, and so KapCon, originally named for the Kapiti region, became Wellington's regular annual role-playing convention

David came up with the name KapCon independently in 1993, but many years earlier in the 1970s, the Kapiti Military Miniatures Society (KMMS) ran a war-gaming convention under the same name. The name in both cases was a contraction of 'Kapiti Convention'

Although KapCon's are currently numbered, the numbering wasn't begun until KapCon IX, in 2000, and as you can see from this history, the numbering was wrong, and it should really have been KapCon VII! Blame lack of continuity and contact with the original organizers. We only confirmed this in 2007, when David Ward found our site!

KapCon Timeline

This section contains brief notes about earlier KapCons and in some case's links to the original web sites. The data for most of these entries has either been provided by David Ward, or compiled by Idiot Savant, and has been reproduced here (with permission) from his 'unofficial' site. Thanks Idiot!

• KapCon 22: Fragrant Harbour

  KapCon 22 was held at Wellington High School on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of January 2013. 143 people attended.

• KapCon 21: Achaean

  KapCon 21 was held at Wellington High School on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of January 2012. 155 people attended.

• KapCon 20: Unnatural 20

  KapCon 20 was held at Wellington High School on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of January 2011, sharing space with HarnCon NZ. 159 people attended.

• KapCon 19: N-n-n-n-n-Nineteen?

  KapCon 19 was held at Wellington High School on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of January 2010. 128 people attended.

• KapCon 18 : Suitable For General Audiences

  KapCon 18 was held at Wellington High School on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of January 2009. 110 people attended.

• KapCon XVII : Random Encounters

  KapCon 17 was held at Wellington High School on Wellington Anniversary Weekend in 2008. 120 people attended.

• KapCon XVI : Flight of the Hindenburg

  KapCon 16 was held at Wellington High School on Wellington Anniversary Weekend in 2007. At least 98 people attended.

• KapCon XV : VR - Rule Brittannia!

  KapCon 15 was held at Wellington High School on Wellington Anniversary Weekend in 2006. 110 people attended.

• KapCon XIV : The Big Ten Four

  KapCon 14 was held at Wellington High School on Wellington Anniversary Weekend in 2005. 110 people attended.

• KapCon the Thirteenth : I Know What You Roleplayed Last Summer

  KapCon the Thirteenth was again held at Wellington College and yet again represented a record level in KapCon attendance. Click on the heading above for more information, pictures from the convention and the associated live game, scenarios and other resources from the games played, and the results of the various competitions.

• KapCon XII: The Twelfth Night

  KapCon XII : Twelfth Night, was held at Wellington High School in Wellington, NZ over Wellington Anniversary weekend (January 18th - 19th) 2003. Attendance increased again, to just shy of a hundred. Click on the heading above for more information, pictures from the convention and the associated live game, scenarios and other resources from the games played, and the results of the various competitions.

  52 scenarios were run in 67 sessions across the whole weekend, D&D3 being the most popular system, with Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu a close second. Other systems run included LOTR, Nobilis, Millenium's End, Godlike, Little Fears, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Engel, Mechanical Dream, plus the usual assortment of system-less and home-brewed games.

  The original website is archived here.

• KapCon XI: The Eleventh Hour

  KapCon XI : The Eleventh Hour, was held in the Northland Community Hall in Wellington, NZ over Wellington anniversary weekend (January 19th & 20th) 2002. The turnout was even larger than the previous years', with 82 people attending over the course of the weekend. Click here for some pictures from the convention and the associated live game, scenarios and other resources from the games played, and the results of the various competitions.

  In 2002 we returned to the traditional format of three 3-hour sessions per day, giving six main gaming sessions, with a LARP on the saturday night. About 40 scenarios were run in 57 sessions across the whole weekend, with D20 being the most popular system. Other systems run included White Wolf's Adventure!, Whispering Vault, Godlike, Alternity, Call of Cthulhu, F-Space, Tribe-8 and Jovian Chronicles, plus the usual assortment of system-less and home-brewed games.

  The original website is archived here.

• KapCon X

  KapCon X was held in the Northland Community Hall in Wellington, NZ over Wellington anniversary weekend (January 20th & 21st) 2001. The turnout was the highest ever, with 55 people attending over the course of the weekend.

  The format was slightly different from previous years, with a mix of three and four-hour slots and only four main gaming sessions, with a LARP and final impromptu session taking up the extra time.

  Despite this, more games were run than in 2000 - 29 games, and about 24 scenarios, not including the impromptus. Call of Cthulhu was once again the preferred system, but the visiting RPGA delegation made D&D 3rd edition a strong contender; other systems included Blue Planet, WHFRP, Shadowrun and Traveller, plus the usual assortment of system-less and home-brewed games.

• KapCon IX

  KapCon IX was held at Turnbull House in Wellington, NZ on Easter Sunday and Monday (April 23rd & 24th) 2000. The turnout was fairly typical - 47 people according to the scoring sheets.

  At least 26 games were run, as well as several more in the mystery freeform final session. The quality of the games was generally high, and there was a wide variety of systems used - Call of Cthulhu was the most popular, but other systems included D&D3, Storyteller, Traveller: the New Era and Dragon Warriors. Roughly a quarter of the games were system-less or home-brewed.

• KapCon '99

  KapCon '99 was held at the Wellington Netball Clubrooms, Haitaiti, Wellington, on Wellington anniversary weekend (January 23rd & 24th) 1999.

  49 people attended. 35 games were run, not counting those run in the late-night bonus session. A large proportion of the games were system-less or home-brewed, but among the others were Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, Vampire: the Masquerade, George Sadlier's Voyager, AD&D, Paranoia, and Tales of the Floating Vagabond.

• KapCon '98

  KapCon '98 was held in the Ballroom in the VUWSA building, VUW on Wellington Anniversary weekend (January 22nd & 23rd) 1998.

  Games run included Puppetland, Dragon Warriors, Paranoia, Runequest, George Sadlier's Voyager, Castle Falkenstein, Vampire: the Masquerade, and Call of Cthulhu.

• KapCon '97

  KapCon '97 was held in the convention room of the Just On Willis Motel on Willis St, Wellington, on Wellington anniversary weekend (January 21st & 22nd) 1997.

  Games run included AD&D, Shadowrun:2250, HoL, George Sadlier's Voyager, Call of Cthulhu, Feng Shui, Castle Falkenstein, Star Wars, and Vampire: the Masquerade.

• KapCon '96

  KapCon '96 was held at the Museum Hotel, Wakefield St, Wellington, on Wellington Anniversary weekend (January 20th - 21st) 1996.

• KapCon '95

  KapCon '95 was held at the Museum Hotel, Wakefield St, Wellington, on Wellington anniversary weekend (January 21st - 22nd) 1995. Games offered included AD&D, Rolemaster, TMNT, MERP, BattleTech and Magic: the Gathering.

• KapCon '94

  KapCon '94 was held at Coastlands Shoppingtown, Paraparaumu, Wellington anniversary weekend (January 21st - 22nd) 1994

• KapCon '93

  KapCon '93 was held at Coastlands Shoppingtown, Paraparaumu, Wellington anniversary weekend ( January 22nd - 23rd) 1993. This was the first of the modern series of KapCon's

Should any reader feel like "putting us right" about things they reckon we've got wrong, feel free to contact us.